Re-connect/Centre/Converge: The Arts Festival by The Substation
Formerly known as SeptFest, The Substation has renamed its annual multidisciplinary arts festival to Re-connect/Centre/Converge: The Arts Festival for 2023.
While past editions were held at The Substation’s former site at 45 Armenian Street, the 2022 edition had to be dispersed around the island after Singapore’s first independent contemporary arts centre lost its space.
For the 2023 edition, curator and festival director John Tung will bring two weeks of events and exhibitions back under one roof – at a carpark at the top of Parklane Shopping Mall.
Tung, who spent part of his postgraduate student life in Hong Kong gathering with friends to chat under an overhead bridge, asks: “If (that) can be transformed into a space where some of the most philosophical conversations can occur, then what more a space like this?”
He hopes this edition can be a space for community and conversation.
Food seems to be a prominent theme. Visitors can attend a tea ceremony with ceramist and teaware maker Kim Whye Kee (Sunday, as well as Sept 23, 24 and 30, various timings), or share food and conversation with artist Adeline Kueh at her installation and performance project (Saturday and Sept 23, 6.45pm).
There will also be poetry readings by writer and artist Ang Kia Yee (Sept 22, 7.30pm), poet and photographer Marc Nair (Sept 23, 7.30pm) and artist and former director of Singapore Art Museum Susie Lingham (Sept 29, 7.30pm).
Those in search of more hands-on fare can participate in a mini sculpture workshop (Wednesday, 2 and 4pm) conducted by Bridget Tay, president of The Artists Village, or an introduction to guerilla gardening by artist Joshua Kon (Sept 22, 6pm).
Where: Level 8 Carpark, Parklane Shopping Mall, 35 Selegie Road
MRT: Dhoby Ghaut
When: Sunday to Sept 30, 11am to 8pm; various timings for different programmes
Admission: $55 for full festival pass to ticketed programmes; free or ticketed for individual programmes
Info: peatix.com/group/8429/events
The Wright Stuff Festival 2023
Three new plays tackling climate change will be on show at the fourth edition of The Wright Stuff Festival 2023.
They are being staged as part of Toy Factory Productions’ biannual playwright mentorship programme, which sees emerging playwrights mentored by a seasoned theatremaker for nine months.
Playwright Rachel Chin, whose play The Thieves tracks a conflict between a passionate student activist and a powerful fossil fuel company boss, says she wanted to write an environmental play that rose above despair and paralysis.
With the help of director Jeffrey Tan, she has trimmed the 20-plus characters in her original script into a lean cast of six and found the essence of her story.
“I think this story will appeal to anyone who likes a good comedy and a fun time, and is tired of plays about climate change,” she says.
The Thieves runs from Friday to Sunday with two showings daily at 3 and 8pm (except Sunday) at Gateway Theatre’s Black Box.
The two other plays are Anthropocene by Vivian Quek, on letting go of the world that humans used to know, and The Prisoner by Annie Low, which tackles the topic of fashion trends.
Where: Black Box, Gateway Theatre, 3615 Jalan Bukit Merah
MRT: Redhill
When: The Thieves, Friday to Sunday, 3 and 8pm (except Sunday); Anthropocene, Sept 22 to 24, 3 and 8pm (except Saturday); The Prisoner, Sept 29 to Oct 1, 3 and 8pm (except Sunday)
Admission: $49, excluding booking fee
Info: toyfactory.bigtix.io
Avant Theatre’s Hangman
Peer into the mind of a hangman in bilingual theatre company Avant Theatre’s new production that questions the moral implications in a legal act of killing.
Expect a mix of dark comedy, absurdist theatre and gallows humour as a traumatised executioner is tormented by guilt and has a conversation with a serial killer.
In this 1½-hour play, Hangman’s audience also plays an active role in making moral decisions for the show’s characters.
Director of Avant Theatre & Language G. Selva says that the show “aims to empower audiences to become players themselves”.
He adds: “This game mode is to trigger the power people in society have in understanding the deeper meaning and relevance of the content and thereafter making a rightful change as a society.”
The play, which promises to be an intense game of psychological warfare, will be performed in Tamil on Thursday and Saturday, and in English on Friday and Saturday.
Where: Stamford Arts Centre, 155 Waterloo Street
MRT: Bencoolen/Bras Basah
When: Thursday, 8pm, and Saturday, 3pm (Tamil); Friday and Saturday, 8pm (English)
Admission: $35 or $30 (concession), excluding booking fee
Info: str.sg/iTVK
